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WRAP secures £1.3m of EU funding

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) has successfully secured €1.5 million (£1.3 million) of EU funding for Resource Efficient Business Models (REBus).

The announcement comes just weeks after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) announced that it was to cut the amount of funding it gives WRAP by 40 per cent by 2015/16, requiring WRAP to “secure other sources of income to further diversify [its] funding base”.

The €3.5 million (£2.7 million) REBus project will see WRAP help develop and deliver business growth ‘within a more circular economy’ and encourage waste prevention. It follows WRAP’s growing focus on resource efficiency, with the advisory body recently launching the Business Resource Efficiency Hub and providing a new online training tool for better resource management ‘On Course for Zero Waste’.

WRAP has said that around €900,000 of the £1.3 million EU LIFE+ funding (the European Union's environment fund) will be used to increase work capacity in four markets: electrical and electronic products, clothing, furniture, and construction products.

Specifically, WRAP will now deliver 10 pilot projects with ‘major organisations’, and a further 20 pilots with small and medium enterprises in the UK and in the Netherlands to demonstrate how businesses and their supply chains can implement resource efficient business models. The aim is to help these organisations achieve 15 per cent resource savings over the project’s three-and-a-half year period. Organisations that have already been confirmed under WRAP’s REBus programme include the University of Northampton, the Aldersgate Group and C-Tech Innovation.

Speaking of the funding, Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP, said: “I was delighted to hear that WRAP had been successful in securing new EU funding for REBus…We have been saying for some time – most recently at the time of the recent Whitehall Spending Review – that WRAP is actively pursuing a new business model where we can draw on more diverse sources of funding, and this latest award is a perfect example of this in action.

“This latest REBus LIFE+ funding scales up the work we already have planned for Defra and the Scottish and Welsh governments. We have other development opportunities in the pipeline, and I am confident this is the first of many such announcements you’ll see coming out of WRAP in the coming months.”

Speaking of the fund, Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said: “The LIFE+ programme continues to provide vital funding for innovative projects. These new projects will make a big contribution to protecting, conserving and enhancing Europe’s natural capital. They will support the goal of turning the EU into a resource efficient, greener and more competitive low-carbon economy.”

Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee has released its final report from its inquiry into the sustainability of the fashion industry, calling for sweeping changes to improve working conditions and reduce the amount of waste produced in the supply chain.